Antonio Cromartie took some time Thursday morning to talk with Dee Milliner, imparting some things he has learned during his NFL career, now in its eighth season.

Cromartie and Milliner both began the season as starting cornerbacks for the Jets, but as they prepare for this Sunday’s Week 4 game at Tennessee, Milliner finds himself in the middle of two challenging weeks that included a benching and now a left hamstring injury.

Two weeks ago Thursday, Milliner was benched in the second half of a loss at New England. He played 23 of 87 snaps in last Sunday’s win over Buffalo, and played well, according to Jets coach Rex Ryan. Then Milliner tweaked his hamstring during Wednesday’s practice, and the injury forced him to miss Thursday’s session. Milliner said missing the practices was a precautionary situation, but couldn’t say if he will be able to play at Tennessee.

Ryan said that if Milliner can’t play against the Titans, Darrin Walls will be the starting corner opposite Cromartie and Kyle Wilson will play the nickel back role. Wilson is the usual nickel back, and he started against the Bills, when Milliner was relegated to a role on the nickel defense. Wilson was benched for a series against Buffalo after being flagged for penalties on four straight plays.

Cromartie knows it’s important for Milliner – who was the Jets’ top draft pick this year (ninth overall) – to hear words of encouragement during challenging times like this.

“You’ve got to talk to him,” Cromartie said. “He’s a young player. We had a talk (Thursday) morning and I think the biggest thing for him is to understand you want to try to get a routine and stick to that routine, even when you’re not injured. It’s just maintenance. We feel like we’re horse racers on the outside, so you want to make sure you take care of your body as much as possible, even when you’re not feeling like you’re injured.”

Cromartie said that maintenance includes “stretching, hot tub, cold tub, getting in there if you have even a small problem and just taking care of that problem. The biggest thing is you’ve just got to take care of your body and understand when and when not you can do some things, and if you have tightness anywhere, just make sure you’re always stretching. We’ve got to make sure our body is well up-kept and taken care of.”

For the first time this year, Cromartie had teammates participate in summer workouts with him in California. Cromartie is already expecting Milliner to show up next summer, and said Milliner is well aware about this.

“He’ll be there next summer,” Cromartie said. “A lot of guys are already asking about it already, so a lot of guys enjoyed it.”

Ryan was disappointed to see Milliner get hurt, because he performed positively against the Bills.

“He was coming,” Ryan said. “Hopefully this isn’t that big of an issue. Did he have a poor performance against New England that wasn’t at the level that we wanted him to play at? Absolutely. But that doesn’t mean we weren’t happy with him. He played well this past week.

“In this game, there’s a 100 percent injury rate, so we know everybody gets hurt. We’ll see how he goes through later on this week, but no, we’re not concerned that he’s an injury thing (injury prone). He had played with a shoulder (injury last year at Alabama) that some guys might have had operated on way earlier in the season. Instead, he goes all the way through, plays in the national championship game, gets ready to run in the combine, runs a 4.3 something, then has the surgery. One thing we know about Dee is he’s a very competitive young man. Hopefully it won’t be long with this injury.”

Milliner missed significant preseason time with a calf/Achilles injury that his coaches have said limited his development. He isn’t pleased to be hurting again.

“I just had that that Achilles,” he said. “This has been aggravating. I'm going to be OK. I'm just going to stay at it and keep working. I've had some ups and downs (through the first three games). You're going to have those.”

Some other notes, injury-related and otherwise, from Ryan …

** Rush outside linebacker Quinton Coples (ankle) and wide receiver Santonio Holmes (foot) didn’t practice Thursday. They had planned days off, to keep them fresh. Coples’ return has been impressive. He came back for the Bills game after undergoing surgery Aug. 20 for an ankle fracture that required the insertion of a plate in his ankle, he said.

The only player besides those two and Milliner who didn’t practice was running back Chris Ivory, who aggravated a nagging hamstring against the Bills and didn’t practice Wednesday.

With Ivory hurt and Mike Goodson not able to return from a four-game suspension until after the Titans game, the Jets have just two tailbacks: Bilal Powell and Alex Green. They could sign another player before this game, or they could go into the game with Powell, Green and fullback Tommy Bohanon, who can play some tailback. If that has to happen, tight end Konrad Reuland is able to play fullback, Ryan said.

“We’ll see how Chris is, but if we feel we need to make a move (with signing a player), I’m sure we’ll consider it,” Ryan said.

** While the Jets’ offense has turned the ball over eight games, their defense has been fantastic, but has just an interception and a fumble recovery through three games, which contributes to the Jets ranking 30th in the league with a minus-6 turnover ratio. Ryan has been mostly pleased with his defense, which ranks third in the NFL in yards allowed.

The Jets have allowed four total touchdowns, including three receiving, two of which have come on blown coverages by the Jets, Ryan said. He doesn’t like to see this, but he is encouraged by the fact that the touchdowns have resulted from fixable mistakes. Still, he would like to see his defense force more turnovers. Tennessee and Kansas City are the only teams in the league yet to give the ball away, though.

“That’s something we need to get better at,” Ryan said. “We’ve got to create some opportunities for our offense. Obviously this week is going to be a huge challenge in that regard because this team hasn’t turned the ball over yet.”

** During the Bills game, an NFL Films microphone picked up Ryan asking for what he referred to as a “Bible” on the sideline. What did Ryan mean by that?

“What happens with that is each week you have a different game plan,” Ryan said. “But every now and then, somebody will fly off the radar and you’ll just say, ‘Give me a Bible. I want to see this, this and this from it.’ That’s not in your game plan-specific book. That’s in the stuff you did in training camp or something you’ve done in the past, so I call it a Bible. At that time (in the Bills game), I was probably looking for the real Bible, too. Didn’t have it with me (the big playbook). We found a way to get it.”